Featherweight Jim Alers has been a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for four years and has competed for some time in grappling competitions such as the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championship.

Alers is either a colossal underachiever or a student with a stingy sensei, but that’s another story.

Parallell to that experience, though, is six wins by submission in MMA. Early on, he would push to put opponents on the mat out of pure comfort – like most fighters who join the sport from a specific discipline.

In his past three fights, Alers has put his standup training to good use while forcing opponents to shoot for a takedown.

“Which I thought was a mistake,” he said. “So I just ended up submitting them.”

On this go-around, Alers meets a fighter who’s earned all but two career wins by way of submission (and suffered most of his losses the same way).

Conventional thinking says that two grappling experts tend to stand and trade punches, and Alers would have no problem with that. He’d be fine, as well, if things went to the mat.

But Alers is not going to play mind games with Lahdesmaki as to which he’d prefer.

“It should be interesting,” Alers said. “I just say whatever happens, happens. It’s always my plan to come out with a win. I’m not really a mind-game kind of guy.”

Alers, however, was happy to have a little fun with Lahdesmaki this week. The two found themselves cutting weight at the same time in the same sauna, and a possibly struggling Lahdesmaki asked how much he had left to cut.

“A couple of ounces,” he answered.

That was true, as a matter of fact. In two 20-minute sessions, he made the featherweight cutoff. Now comes the fight, which serves as the co-main event of the evening. A win would give Alers a nice four-fight win streak – attractive to bigger promotions.

Also attractive is a fighter who can submit you or knock you out, and does one of either in every fight.

Alers might not yet have his brown belt, but he’s doing pretty well anyway.

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